GOVINDA K writes: I had a Learner’s License earlier. But as it had lapsed a year ago, I decided to get a new learner’s license once again.

I decided that I would get a license without going through a broker or giving extra money.

I faced lot of problems and I am yet to get a license. I faced an oral test. That man asked me about 8-9 questions. I answered wrongly for 2 questions. Hence I was failed.

My experienced friends told me that it is too difficult to pass through the oral test. Hence it is better to take up the written test where we have to answer for objective type questions. And lesser chances of failing.

After all this experience, i decided to write some useful tips for persons who want to get a new license.

* Be prepared 2 days earlier to get the license. There is a need to submit one document for the proof of your age. And another document for the proof of your address. You SSLC marks card or birth certificate will surely qualify for the proof of age. And coming to address proof, you either need to submit you passport or ration card or Life Insurance policy or election voter’s ID card. Get both the documents attested by a gazetted officer. And please keep the original documents also with you. Though the documents are attested, you will be asked for original documents for the fault of not going through the broker!

* Keep at least 4 passport sized photographs ready and keep 3 of them in a small paper cover.

* Carry a small bag. It is better that you keep all your stationery items like stapler, gum, ball pins, A4 sheets, pen.

* Your first step is to take the challan from a counter. If you go through a broker, the broker will give you a slip with your name written in it. When you give this slip, that man will immediately print the challan and give you. But if you go without a broker, he will ask you your name, and in case you don’t have proper change (Rs. 30 for Learner’s license), he will send you back again to get proper change. So the problem starts right from this counter also.

* Now as you enter the office, a man with a board “nimma sahaayakkaagi” (for your help) will be sitting relaxing and if you ask him any clarifications, he will get angry and says “gottilla alli keli nodi” (i don’t know ask there). I compared him with the hard working call centre professionals who never show that they are irritated and ask us “sir any more clarifications? thanks, have a nice day.”

* Now you have to show that challan to another counter and get an application form. Here starts the differentiation. The person who goes through a broker gets the application form from the broker. And the application form of each broker is unique with some signs which the officers can understand. And the broker’s name will be written behind the photograph. So here they get the each broker’s “account details.”

* After you struggle to fill the application form, get ready to stand in the long queue. After waiting for one hour, your turn will come. But dont be surprised. The officer who is to check you application form will go out for “kaaphee” every half an hour. And here starts your first test. If you don’t keep th photographs in a cover pinned properly to the application, your application is rejected. Your application will be rejected for every small error.

* Even if you produce your marks card with attestation, you will be asked to produce th original document. Oh this officer is so careful in scrutinising your application. But how come Al-Badr terrorists managed the scrutiny of this “intelligent” officer?

* Once your scrutiny is over, you have to again stand in a long queue. When your chance comes, you will be called in for a oral test. If you go through a broker, you will be asked 3 ready made questions. If you dont go through a broker, you will be asked to explain all those traffic symbols which RTO has never used in any roads.

* If you go through a broker, you are passed. If you dont go through a broker, then you are failed. Hold your breath if you had applied for leave and come. You have to attend the test once again tomorrow! So put 2-3 days leave together and go to get a license. The next day you have to again go through the same old officer standing in a long queue and get your application scrutinised yet again!! Didn’t he check the papers the first day? Then why a scrutiny again?

* And again face the exam the next day. The questions will be of the nature “nan magane broker illde license ad-hEge maaDisteeya naanu nODe biDteeni. ee question answer maaDu”

* And it is better to take up written test instead of oral test. But for my great amma “chamundeshwari mahime”, (chamundeshwari bye elections), one inspector who conducts the written test was busy seizing the illegal vehicles of party workers some where in the outskirts of the city.

21 comments

Great guts! All the best! Hope u get ur license on ur own. That will be a great inspiration to many!
Many of us who scream about corruption are frustrated and disgusted lot to try like this.
If the RTO have a e-mail id, please hand it to us through this blog so that we can atleast mail-attack them because we are lazy and scared enough about ourselves to protest live.
Namdella onthara virtual life aagogide!

Please keep it up guru in your fight against corruption.Nobody demands anything in the office,but it is the delaying tactics at the lower levels wth tacit approval from above. These things are continuing even when their pay and perquisites are better. Nowadays no politicians will dare to comment on this. God knows when we are going to become a corruption free administration.

All this reminds me of an Iranian friend who was studying in Mysore long ago.

He once came back terribly exasperated from a driving test at the RTO office. He had obviously failed the test.

Reason?

When asked how he would make a right turn while driving he had plainly answered, ‘by switching on the right indicator of my car!’

He vehemently wanted to know from me what other way there was on this earth to indicate that he was turning right!

Well, well, Mr Ali, on the great highways and bylanes of our country we turn right or left or whichever other direction there is, without indicating at all invariably, or if at all we sometimes feel like indicating, we just poke feebly in the air with our right hand index finger for a nano second before roughishly steering our vehicle in that direction!

surprising that i didn’t have to undergo all this when i went for my ll, my sister had prepared me for all the questions. i took the written test, which went…ummm…. along with hitches. for heavens’ sake why do i need to know about 4-wheelers’ if i wanted an ll for a 2-wheeler? it was obviously not worthwhile aguing with the police at work, so i got ‘another chance’, wherein i modified my answers, and i passed.

obtaining dl proved to be troublesome. the rto where i took my dl, is infamous for not passing first-timers, who appear without the help of a broker. the second time, i cleared the test, without bribing of course.

If you really want to solve the problem, most probably Krishna Prasad can help you. Indian Economy is booming because of inward ousourcing from advanced countires because our labour is cheap. I feel some departments like RTO, Excise can be outsourced to countries like Sweeden, Finland which have high score in transparency and honesty.
May be Prasad through Vijaya Times can suggest this to Government. Otherwise you may have to go many times to appear in the test till you wear out your feet!

Great going, but I pity for you.
Once I wanted to get one affidvit done in court, for that my lawyer had to bribe at 4 counters even though I objected. And most humourus thing was that, he bribed in coings, not in notes. Just imagined to what level some of our Govt officials have come.
And in Karnataka, RTO is the most corrupt place to deal with. Ooops..! in Bangalore its horrible. In some cirlces there will be interrupted or jamed traffic, but our traffic man will be busy collecting fine and bribes.
Even God cant eliminate corruption in India.

Hello friends,
I had not checked out churumuri. My friend just msg’d me that my story had appeared here. So came here.

VNA,
yes u r right. We have guts to only tell it on email. But i am happy we are able to make at least some difference in it.
Now i remembered another thing which i forgot to tell there. When my license was rejected, i came back home and searched the web for RTO rules. The URL is morth.nic.in. I found some useful information in that website.

When it comes to RTO and vehicles, we have to understand one thing. It all comes under the Central Motor Vehicles act 1988 and Central Motor vehicles rules 1989. If you are well versed with those rules, then no one can shake you. But the problem in that website is that the Act book is scanned as jpg images which are then converted as PDF’s. So there are no chances of text search there. One small example of how our NIC (national informatic centre) websites are made. And each rule is given in one pdf. So if u want all the rules, then you’ll have to download 80 odd pdf’s…

And regarding granting of Learning licence, the rule clearly states that “the candidate should be able to answer at least 60% of the questions put to him”. So when i went for a oral test, i was asked some 10 questions. I failed to recognise only 2 symbols. But even then i was failed! But i could not question it because it was a oral test. When i further asked that man for clarifications, that man told me to come after elections and take the written test.

And before the elections only, on saturday (2nd dec), i had been to RTO and stood in a long queue again to get my documents and form scrutinised again!! Then i went for the written test. I came to know that oral test was only for illiterates :p . I was given 15 questions out of which i answered 14 correctly. How did i get so much? Here is a small trick. The first time you go for that test, no one will advice you to learn all those symbols. In the footpath of TRO, there are some people who sell those symbols and rules for Rs.5/-. Just buy it and be prepared with those symbols and rules. You will surely pass that multiplie choice test.

That man told me to come on monday (4th dec) to collect my learner’s license. But today i could not go. I will go tomorrow and collect it.

And let me tell you something about another interesting thing that happened. My application was rejected for the first time because i had given Gas Customer Card for the proof of address. He asked me for Ration Card or Passport or any document where the address is checked by the police. I immediately wrote an application under RTI and asked him for clarification (my first attempt under rti), but he dint entertain that application saying that i have to pay some money somewhere else. I came home and asked my brother and came to know that there is a special officer in each office who is given the charge for RTi. WE have to pay Rs. 10/- and get a reciept. He gave me oral clarification.

Ananth Shenoy,
Yes i had noticed that daaktar (doctor) who used to park his maruti 800 dark green colour last year. With a sticker on his glass “doctor” and a plus symbol. I just searched around for that man and dint find that maruti 800. May be he sold his maruti and bought a new skoda!!

I could not take photos properly, but this is the photo of the room where i was offered oral test. An apt example for the transparency in the department… Just have a look at the photo… Very much transparent!
Image link:: http://img436.imageshack.us/my.php?image=rtoca0.jpg

Some suggestions:
that man with the board “nimma sahaayakkaagi” should be given VRS and sent home. Instead of him, 5 people from some call centres should be given that work (outsource the work). I just compared the difference between here and ICICI bank. When i went to ICICI bank to get an account, one staff member himself got me the challan and helped me fill the form.

At least they have to install a computer kiosks in RTO premises. They should play us the videos of how to get a license and DL…

My friends who heard my story told me that its quite easy to get learning licence and its big problem getting DL. One thing you’ll notice in RTO is “throught broker” and “without broker” — this is the criteria on which you are divided! If you go thro a broker, you will have to drive your vehicle in the road behind RTO which has less traffic. If you go without a broker, then you will be asked to drive in the main road!!

Continued….
My licence was to be issued on 4th december. I did not go to collect it. But my luck, today one RTO man caught me near Panchavati circle! I explained him that i wil show him the license by evening. But he asked me to pay 300 Rs. fine and i got a reciept.

And i went to RTO office today (5th dec) at 4:30 to collect my licence. I finally got it. But that man at the counter asked me to pay Rs. 10 for which i dint get a reciept! I dont know why my absent mind dint ask him for reciept. He pasted a label over my license which carried a message “maalinya niyantrana tingaLu”. May be my Rs. 10 goes towards that fund. Why do they need that fund anyway?

I took a photo of RTO office just for Churumuri readers. As i took the photo, one man came and told me “ammaavru kareetaa iddaare”.
Have a look at the photo i took:http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/7960/rtomysgw7.jpg
See that jeep. The lady officer inside that jeep asked me why i took the photo. I was bit nervous but then i told her that i have the hobby of taking photos. And i have taken the photos of all the offices of Mysore. That Lady officer again asked me if i was a press photographer. Then as i left RTO office, another jeep followed me upto oriental research institution! When i took another photo of the street, that man in the jeep stopped his jeep and watched me carefully for a moment and went off. So much of vigilance for taking one photo!! (i will write about this issue in detail in another post anytime)

It was during the last Congress rule that a RTO went to a Newspaper reporter and asked him whether he would be able to use his good contact and get posting to a particular check post in the Karnataka Maharashtra border and offered him Rs 2 lakh and was prepared to pay Rs 10 lakh for the Minister or the official who gets the job done.
The reporter who is known for his clean record refused to take the money , but assured him that he would try to put in a word to the Chief Minister since the RTO was the kin of the Reporter’s close friend. He also asked him why not he try and get the work done from the Reporter of a national newspaper who could get that work done in a jiffy. The RTO said, “Sir, we tried him, but he said he could not do it this year but would try next year as he had already got one transfer”.
When the application requesting for transfer was given , a visibly upset Chief Minister called his secretary and told him to institute an inquiry as to why every one right from the Union Ministers, MP’s and MLA’s were after that post.Chief Minister had received more than 10 recommendations requesting for posting people of their choice to that particular check post.
Later it was gathered that the income (mamool) from that check post was between Rs 75,000 to Rs 1 lakh a day and the income is shared by various persons.
When top brass of the department indulge in amassing such huge amount, naturally, the practice percolates down to the ‘may I help you” man and the peon who takes the LL or DL for “Sahebara Signecharru”

To save time, i went through a broker (of course i did not tell anybody at home) But still failed to get through, Because the examining officer was angry with broker for not giving his kharcha- paani(?).
Second day, the inpsector with whom the broker had a tie-up was absent and in his place there was a so called strict officer. he read my name slowly but loudly saying – Malathi Shenoy- Mangaloorinavaraa? mangaloorinavaru tumbaa jaaNarendu kELiddEne’ and asked me some nonsensical questions of which i could make neither the head nor tail. I was soooo upset, i decided i did not want the licence. But the broker was confident of getting me a LL. he said u need not come again Ma-am, i will send the license to your office.
(you should see it to believe how some people are insulted. the application forms if are not properly filled they are thrown back at people’s faces.)
But my bad luck did not end there. since there were 2 failed remarks on my form, i was required to attend the test again. i opted for the written test, got the traffice rules and regulation sheet for Rs. 2/- and finally managed to pass. whew.
And family really considers me clever …. (but shhhh…. this is a secret, ok?)
This month iam supposed to get my DL, everybody wish me good luck
malathi S

In Bangalore in some places, the inspectors who give you driving test – will ask you to buy some tickets from them at the end of the test. Subtle extraction. If you do not buy – you can be certain of your test results.

And the RTO Offices are purposefully kept in a state of mess and directionlessness – so that you cannot figure out anything on your own. This allows middlemen to run their show.

>The one way road of Adi Pampa road which is parallel to Kalidasa road.

>Any corners of Mahajana college.

Best way of catching their customers is to stand on one way road or double roads where we cant take back turn. And that road will not have any left and right turns. The left and right turns will be filled with his assistant.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation set up a sting operation and recorded Mitchell taking $500.

“This case illustrates two important points,” U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said in a press release. “First, public servants, even at fairly low levels, who solicit or accept bribes may find themselves in federal court and federal prison. Second, if you have paid bribes or are being solicited to pay bribes, you want to knock on our door before an FBI agent knocks on yours. The company that Mitchell solicited in this case did that, and as a result it is not being prosecuted. Someone who does the right thing, even if belatedly, can end up as just a witness, instead of a co-defendant. The choice is yours. The FBI’s number in Atlanta is 404-679-9000.”

U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said in a press release. “First, public servants, even at fairly low levels, who solicit or accept bribes may find themselves in federal court and federal prison. Second, if you have paid bribes or are being solicited to pay bribes, you want to knock on our door before an FBI agent knocks on yours. The company that Mitchell solicited in this case did that, and as a result it is not being prosecuted. Someone who does the right thing, even if belatedly, can end up as just a witness, instead of a co-defendant. The choice is yours.

Hi,
all the best Govinda….
Form one month ,I am also trying to get Learners license. The employee who is checking the documnets himself told me to come through broker, otherwise i wont get any license.So, i went to broker.It was a shock that broker asked 3500/- for learners+permanent licences.Again broker said: 3000/- will be the final amount. only for learners license we have to pay 1000/-.what a shameful thing. I refused pay.I returned to home. I also decided to try myslf for licence without giving bribes.